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The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Means of Ascent
How the poor kid from Texas steals an election to win his seat in the U.S. Senate
The Means of Ascent by Robert A. Caro is the second of a planned trilogy on Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 35th President of the United States. Caro has yet to complete the third. Published in 1990, it followed the publication of The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power released in 1982. Caro is the most thorough of biographers and the second volume reflects the meticulous research that made the first so comprehensive and readable.
In this second book, the reader encounters Coke Robert Stevenson; one of the more charismatic leaders has ever Texas produced. It was this man Lyndon Johnson was to run against for the Senate seat then being held by Pappy O’Daniels the man who had beaten Johnson in the earlier 1941 race. But, Coke Stevenson, not Pappy O’Daniels the incumbent, was the real competition for the seat the book is worth reading if not to learn of this remarkable man.
Coke Stevenson’s schooling came from his father, an itinerant Texas schoolteacher. At the age of 16, he started a freight service carrying farmers’ produce to a train line in the town of Brady, 70 miles from the town of Junction where Coke’s family had settled. The obstacles confronting this 16-year would have made most men shrink from the enterprise. The road between Brady and Junction "was no more than a rough, rocky trail winding over the steep, jagged hills; in rainy spells it turned into a ribbon of mud," writes Caro. "And rain made the seven swift Hill Country streams between Brady and Junction swell and race…the thought of bringing a loaded wagon across all seven of them twice on each round trip was daunting."
Coke Stevenson hauled freight for two years, teaching himself bookkeeping at night as he rested on the trail. He moved from hauling freight to working as a janitor in a bank in Junction then worked himself up to be bookkeeper and finally cashier. All along he wanted to buy a ranch. But, circumstances forced Stevenson into a life of public service, almost against his will. He supervised the building of roads for the county and took on other public service offices. Tutoring himself on the law as he served, he slowly developed a reverence for government that would serve the State of Texas well during his terms in office including his year as Texas Governor. Caro writes, "‘I think Coke really hated politics," an Austin politician says. "Truly hated it—the deals, the maneuverings. It went completely against the grain of the man.’ But he loved government—loved it and knew it as few men did."
In many ways Coke Stevenson was the antithesis of Lyndon Johnson. Tall, quiet, intense, and charismatic, men naturally differed to him. In his home state, he was referred to as Mr. Texas. His intelligent reasoned arguments made him a sought-after lawyer and successful businessman. Yet, in spite of the success, he was devoted to his family and his much loved Hill Country ranch. However, in the end, Stevenson’s distaste for politics would loose him the Senate seat, though, in a testament to Stevenson’s immense personal power, Lyndon Johnson would have to steal the race at the eleventh hour not win it through the popular vote.
Johnson and his group of backers spent more money on the race for the senate seat than had ever been spent on a race until that time. Money bought media time. Johnson had accused Stevenson of failing to back the Taft-Hartley act and further accused Stevenson of wanting to repeal the act. When Stevenson realized Johnson political ploy, he wrote a letter clarifying his position, but it was too late. Caro cites former Texas governor John Connally. "‘You have to say something over and over to get voters aware of it. And he (Coke) didn’t (do that). He didn’t advertise it, he didn’t make an issue of it on the radio. So the press might be aware of the (letter), they might write a story about it—but nobody knew about it."
But money could also buy men. Indeed, money bought the race for Johnson in east Texas. Caro writes, "‘Ernest Boyett still remembers his shock when he began contacting east Texas political leaders whose support for Coke Stevenson he had considered certain. ‘Almost the first two I contacted—and they were key men—said to me that they couldn’t support Coke this time. They had supported the Old man for years. But they had each been offered a thousand dollars each to switch to Johnson…’"
Nowhere in Texas was the purchase of men more commonplace than in the city of San Antonio and in John wells, Duval and counties south and east of the city. Caro describes it this way. "‘Campaigning was no good any more,’ Ed Clark says. ‘We have to pick up some votes.’ Votes in the numbers needed couldn’t be picked up by conventional methods, he says. ‘We need blocs. Ethnic groups—that was the place to go… That meant into the Mexican country: the Rio Grande River, the border…"
In San Antonio, Sheriff Owen Kilday was Johnson’s man. "Election Day work was handled by Kilday’s numerous deputy sheriffs. They would be responsible for hiring cars and drivers to round up Mexican-American and get them to the polls—and to make sure they voted correctly—and, Connally says, "they had a standard rate for a car and a driver, and they were paid handsomely: $250 for some deputies, $500 for others…’"
However, it was in Jim Wells County, that the infamous ballot box of Precinct 13 was to play a pivotal role in electing Johnson to the Senate. In Jim Wells, Duval and the other adjoining counties, the Duke of Duval, George Parr was the man who determined who got elected and who didn’t. It was Johnson’s hard luck that Parr had switched his vote in Johnson’s first Senate bid and thus lost Johnson the election. Now, the same George Parr, sufficiently paid by Johnson’s camp and with no offers from the Stevenson camp delivered the election to Johnson.
The description of the maneuvering to get Johnson the necessary plurality is a better education in the way of 20th Century politics than any textbook will ever duplicate. The men who stuffed the boxes , willingly provided the details of the theft. They were men like Luis "Indio" Salas, George Parr’s feared muscle. In their old age when Caro interviewed them and certainly longing for some piece of history, nevertheless, they came with enough evidence to corroborate their stories. Stevenson was not blind to the thievery either. When all the votes in the election were counted, Johnson had 494,191 and Stevenson had 494,104 a difference of 87 votes and they all came from Precinct 13.
No sooner were the ballots counted than Stevenson sent a team to investigate the election. This was a political battle involving voting irregularities that the Texas and Federal Courts had conflicting jurisdictions over. Therein lies the lever that Lyndon Johnson used to pry the election away from the rightful winner and to set himself on the road to the White House.
Though The Means of Ascent starts slower than The Path to Power it quickly becomes compelling reading as the reader grows attached to the bigger than life character of Coke Stevenson. The reader is further intrigued and enthralled in the political battle that pits an immensely popular Texas hero, Stevenson, against a lesser-known Lyndon Johnson. The conclusion to the battle between these two men for the Senate seat is better than fiction.
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